This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. The long term purpose of the project is to identify and explore a set of proteomic biomarkers specific to the type of thyroid cancer using blood serum. The immediate objective of this study is to establish standard protocols and procedures for the reproducible analysis of proteins from blood serum that could be used in biomarkers discovery not only in the thyroid cancer, but also other cancers and diseases. Therefore, the specific aim is to develop standard protocols and procedures for serum fractionation prior to SELDI analysis and to optimize SELDI-TOF analysis conditions. The proteomic profiles generated from these studies will be used for the development of computational models and provide the foundation for future experimental designs. Advances in the proteomics study opened more possibilities for less invasive cancer detection methods and for novel cancer biomarkers screening techniques. Surface-Enhanced Laser Desorption/Ionization [unreadable]Time of Flight mass spectrometry (SELDI-TOF) and ProteinChip technology (BioRad, USA) offer a fast and sensitive method of analysis of a complex mixture of proteins and peptides. Recently SELDI-TOF has been successfully used to identify potential biomarkers for the diagnosis of ovarian, prostate, colorectal, breast, lung, pancreatic, liver, and brain cancers. We plan to collect 80 blood serum samples from patients diagnosed with thyroid nodule and referred for Fine Needle Aspiration procedure, however only a subset of 20 will be used initially to establish protocols. Samples are collected by venipuncture, and the blood is drawn according to the standardized protocols into serum and plasma collection tubes. Serum and plasma are aliquoted and stored immediately in -80C. Serum and plasma samples will be processed in batches to avoid variations in the processing. Up to this day we have collected samples from 8 patients only.